Eight episodes into Star Trek Discovery, and I still was unsure as to weather or not I enjoyed the show. It was pretty to look at, and the action was fun. However, it deviates a lot from Star Trek norms, and there was something else bugging me that I just couldn’t put my finger on. It was the lack of character development. Something I was truly disappointed in when I put two and two together. For one thing most of the characters aren't very likable to begin with, and most of them come across as immoral, or at the very least, self centered. So, it was a shame, when eight episodes in, I felt like I didn’t know any of the characters better than I did at the beginning.
*Full SPOILERS Ahead for the First 8 Episodes of Discovery*
Saru is your token alien character for Discovery. He is characterized in the first two episodes as being from a race of prey. His race has evolved to be self preserving to the degree that they can sense danger. In episode eight (his only episode for development thus far) we see him act all high and hippyish, under the influence of some psychic trees. At the tail end of the episode we find out that he was happy staying with the trees because he lives the entire rest of his life in fear. Making his only character traits: Cowardly prey, that can sense danger coming, but is afraid all the time anyways.
Captain Lorca is the captain to the titular Discovery. He is characterized in his first episode as being risky, aggressive, and machismo. In a later episode, while being held prisoner, the audience finds out that Lorca blew up the last ship under his command, while the crew was on board, in order to prevent them from becoming POWs. Later that episode Lorca is able to escape from the Klingon prison along with another Starfleet officer, but not before abandoning Harry Mudd to die there. A few episodes later, Harry Mudd is on the Discovery and says something along the lines of, “You’ll never believe what I found in the Captain’s quarters.” Is it a picture of some deceased relative? I wondered. Is it the wedding ring of his long lost lover? Is it a drag queen outfit? Nope! It’s some illegal weapon the Captain had hidden. The issue here is that everything we find out about Lorca only serves to further concrete his previously existing characteristics. Take any character from Game of Thrones that starts out as unlikeable, and eventually, you’ll start the empathize with them, at least a little. Lorca, on the other hand, is just a one note character.
Michael Burnam is, however, the worst offender here. She’s the main character of the show. Who the show has spent, by far, the most time with; yet she hasn’t changed a bit. In the first episode she is established the her ship’s first officer. Which implies a certain amount of responsibility and maturity. Soon after we find out how she was raised by none other than Spock’s parents, who raised her to be as rational and emotionless as any Vulcan. Both of these traits are quickly thrown away as Michael decides to overthrow her Captain and attack the Vulcans, all because she thought it was the right call. This lands Michael in jail as Starfleet’s first mutineer, and the whole galaxy learns to hater her. Yet, she never really seems to change from there. She still acts out, getting in fights in the third episode. She still only follows orders when it’s convenient, and she has this bizarre cocky/aloof attitude about her (which may be a result of her Vulcan upbringing?). The only crack in the veneer is through her interactions with Sylvia who seems to be trying to reach out to Burnam. Other than that Burnam is still the cocky, rude, sure of herself character she was from episode one.
Of course I didn’t forget about Dr. Hugh Culber and Paul Staments. Those two and Sylvia are the most upstanding, most likeable characters on the entire show. Unfortunately, thus far, the show as chosen to spend little time focusing on them, and they havent really had much change either, with the exception of Sylvia actively pursuing an officer position and Paul being high all the time. So here we are, almost 8 hours in--more than three movies worth of time; and all of our characters are still very one sided and basic. I was hoping for a little more out of a modern Star Trek show, but I still hope it improves from here.
I’m interested to know if anyone thinks the show is worth finishing, or if anyone completely disagrees with my points--please sound off in the comments.